Show Your Ads Only When Competitors Ads Are Not Showing

“I’m selling the same products as my supplier and we both advertise on AdWords. We were wondering whether one of us is eating away some market share from the other by doing so, and we end up paying more per conversion than if only one of us would be using AdWords.”

This is a hard question to answer properly as there are a number of different scenarios that could take place and the effects of each will be quite different on your end results.

Yes, competition can drive up prices. If you’re both competing to position your ad in the same slot on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), then obviously you’re going to be in direct competition with each other and anyone else who is advertising against that keyword, which could drive up costs.

But, if you’re the only bidders on the SERP and not fighting each other for position, then it’ll make little difference on your conversion rates.

Traffic can also be a big influencing factor. If your market has a very small customer base, then you can expect your conversion rate to be quite low. And having another competitor advertising alongside, you could drive down that conversion rate still further.

But, if your traffic rates are quite high, then you might conclude that there are plenty of fish in the sea for everyone and competition may have very little effect on your conversion rates.

Unfortunately, there just isn’t a simple answer to the question of how much impact a single competitors ad has on your costs.

You could, for instance, pool your AdWords statistics and agree not to compete with each other on certain keywords for which one of you gets significantly more conversions than the other. Another option might be to use ad scheduling so that your ads appear at different times.

At the very least, you’ll want to ensure that you’re not competing against each other for the same ad position on the SERP.

Other than that, there is no setting that looks at other accounts and shows your ads only when they aren’t showing an ad. Each account works independently of all others so stick to your ultimate goal.

Which AdWords Account Access Level Is Best For You?

1. Administrative

This is the highest level of account management with which you can do absolutely everything including:)

view, edit and manage the entire account

receive notification emails

invite others to join your account

access website optimizer or analytics

2. Standard

This level gives the user almost the same access as the administrative level with the exception that they can not:)

invite others into the account,

share access to the account,

change the access of account users

disable the account.

This level of access is normally given to managers of your account who access it via My Client Center.

3. Read Only

With the Read Only account access level, users can:)

view and run reports

browse the campaigns and opportunities tabs

access reporting tools on the campaigns tab such as filters and segmentation options, but can not change anything.

receive account notification emails

unlink an account from My Client Center.

Typically, users with Read Only access were invited to the account by a My Client Center manager.

4. Emails Only

The Email Only AdWords Account Access level is the most heavily restricted. These users cannot log into the account but can receive account alerts and other notifications via email.

How To Invite Users To Access Your Account

You can also change a users access level by clicking on the “Actions” button and invite other users to access your account by clicking on the “Invite Other Users” button.To see who has access to your account and at what level, you select the “Account Access” option under the “My Account” tab.